I don't think we need reminding how important this match is. They played well (i thought) against KR last week and the way we are wasting opportunities at the minute makes me a little anxious. Good performance needed, Mid season performance needed to get through to the Wire game. Personally i think we have already lost to Warrington and if Hull are dispatched this week our season all hangs on a match against an in-form Stains match at the finale of the regular season. Mouth-watering but i am starting to feel a little uneasy after the last few weeks. Hopefully it is a few jitters and they pick up again but this one is going to the last.

two days extra rest, we just have to come out of the blocks rapidly, hit them hard and blow them away first 20 mins like we can do

We should on form beat Hull.

Saints to beat Warrington.

Five points clear no panic.

We could be 25 points clear and it counts for jack diddly squat come the playoffs. Nice as the mid season performances were, the focus at the moment is all about having a fresh squad for the last four weeks of the season.

we (fc) have performed better than i expected over the last two games with our injury situation, but i see this game as an easy win for wigan, hopefully we havn't picked up anymore today against a salford team who were more than happy to mix it and try to bully us!

travelling across next friday, is the gravel carpark still free as you drive past asda and the DIY stores?

To home fans it is, it's a fiver for you, we've taken the Hull FC approach to pricing



Seriously, though, yes it is but I'd get there pretty early as it fills up and there is a big crowd expected for this one.

We certainly aren't the team we were a couple of months ago thats for sure. Largely down to Tommy's injury I think. Starting to get a feeling of unease. We could do with a convincing performance again to prove to ourselves that we can get back to that level. Friday's win was workmanlike but not specatular.

Always going to be a gelling period with Smith and Thornley coming in.

Personally Im quite happy with the way things are going, providing we keep the pace for the Hubcap. I value that quite highly.

That and when the think about the groundword that Waney has done this season and the benefits it should bring in the near future (new signings and debuts for young 'uns).

haha, cheers, past two seasons we have got there pretty early and got parked on the edge near the road, just wanted to know if it was still in use or if the club had taken over it

I think the Gelling period is over, for a while, unless Daz can't play.

Gelling was better in the 20's on Saturday than Thornley was in the first team on Friday.

i'd hope any player would appear better in the 20s than in a first team game.

My big worry is that we always seem to perform poorly when there's a bigger than average crowd on at the DW. We never seem to win when there's a big marketing push on.

This has been niggling me when I've thought about this weeks game as well. Hopefully we can put this right on Friday. We need to go in to Wire away on the back of a good performance IMO.

Well that's sorted then, We are all in agreement that we are expecting an average performance against Hull, So the lad's can read this thread and batter them out of sight in the first half then go to Warrington and put 40 up em on their own patch again.


Could the unthinkable happen. Could St Helens do us a favour and beat Warrington and then come here on the last day knowing they gave us the LLS.

That can only be a coincidence - we've won in front of 70,000 at Old Trafford and 80,000 at Wembley. Also battered Saints in front of a big crowd at Eastlands and in front of a full house last season on Good Friday.

On the road seems no problem, its when there's a good crowd at the DW where we seem to struggle.

Well that settles it then... Everybody stay at home!

Wasn't Huddersfield the big one last year? We battered them?

It might only be a coincidence but there is no denying that we have struggled at home in games with big crowds, and not just games against Wire and Saints, but games we'd probably be expected to win.

Our last few "big" crowds over the last 3 seasons at home don't read particularly well:

29/6/12 Bradford (Heritage game) L 22-30 19628
23/3/12 Warrington L 20-22 21267
5/2/12 Huddersfield L 16-20 16771
9/9/11 Crusaders (Heritage game) W 42-10 19104
25/6/11 Huddersfield (Big One 3?) W 46-12 19169
22/4/11 St Helens W 28-24 24057
25/3/11 Warrington L 6-24 21056
27/2/11 St George (WCC) L 15-21 24268
3/9/10 Bradford W 34-12 17058
16/7/10 Warrington (Big One 2) L 16-23 22701
20/6/10 St Helens L 24-26 20498
23/4/10 Harlequins L 26-38 18605
26/3/10 Leeds W 24-4 17883

So that's 13 home crowds over 16.5k, losing 8 and winning 5

We lose 1 game yes it was a big game and all this negative talk comes out from most of our fans

The reason we lost the semi is pretty straight forward we didn't turn up and Leeds did we missed Tommy/Smith, with locky at 6 the ball from first or second receiver wasn't good enough no zip like it is with Tommy there now Smith is in it looks 100 times better and i'm pretty happy on how he's slotted in

People need to get out their heads that we will see Tommy back this season it's not going to happen the club has not made a statement saying so but why would they pay out cash mid season for a 7? think about it even if he could run on his leg he wont be fit enough

We have got Paaaat coming back which is massive strike power that left side hasn't looked the same since he was injured and him and Carmont know what each other is doing plus the danger of the high kick in the corner he's not been the top points scorer last couple of seasons on his kicking

Wire have 1 eye on the cc final they have Saints then us yeah i know it's 2-3 weeks before the final but they wont have full attention on taking the top spot atm, it's hard for any team to do the double in this day and age come the play offs it will show like it did with us last season

I may be getting over confident, but I still think we will win this one. I don’t think scoring would be our down-fall if we don't, even though we’ve missed a shed-load of opportunities in the last few games. No if we do lose I think it would be more through our defence if that happened. Hope Lockers is back to shore up the wall. That one trick pony Foster could be the difference at the end of the day, but as I said I do think we’ll take this one, our forwards should be too strong for them.

Looks like we'll face Hull without Finch and O'Loughlin -

Phil Wilkinson ‏@PhilWilkWIG
Shaun Wane press conf: plans to give Sam Powell a debut against Hull FC. Finch struggling to be fit, O'Loughlin a doubt.

Sam Tomkins will captain the team.

Given that most league games are effectively meaningless friendlies, especially once the top 8 has been made certain I'm glad that Powell is getting a chance. No player should be risked if they are carrying knocks.

We will have to out score them with tries considrably as Foster is kicking everything for them.
Wigan 28 Hull 14

Our likely team:

T. Briscoe
T. Lineham
J. Turner
K. Yeaman
J. Foster
R. McGoldrick
A. Heremaia
A. Lynch
D. Houghton
L. Watts
W. Manu
J. Westerman
R. Whiting

Aspinwall
O'Meley
Pitts
Green